NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson's perfect weekend opens up his NASCAR points lead

It’s hard to believe that winning three-straight NASCAR Cup championships aren’t enough for Jimmie Johnson or his crew chief, Chad Knaus.

Knaus had been wishing for a “perfect weekend,” and Johnson delivered leading all practice sessions, winning the pole, and winning the Bankers 500 in a Chevrolet, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

“Man, we pulled off a perfect weekend and we've always wanted to do that,'” said an ebullient Johnson in Victory Lane.

Matt Kenseth, who hadn’t won, or been competitive since his victory in California in February was second in a Ford, and Kasey Kahne, in a Dodge, was third. “It feels good to run up front, it’s been awhile… it builds confidence,” Kenseth said.

Kahne overcame some ignition problems and explained “we weren’t good enough that final run…when it counted Jimmie showed up and beat us all.”

Although Johnson had a few small problems mid-way through the race, the only challenger his teammate, and co-owner of his car, Jeff Gordon, passed him on a restart with 15 laps to go but faded, finishing fourth due to choosing two tires on his last pit stop versus the leaders who took four.

“What a big day,” said Johnson who won at his home track last week, and his team’s home track Saturday night. Speaking of the mid-race he added “we really struggled to get things right. Thought the 9 (Kahne) had thing in the bag.

Once the Gordon challenge faded then Kenseth and Kahne battled for second place. Still, the four-time champion was pretty happy going from 10th to third in the points,(135 behind Johnson) in the last four races.

“We were fighting like we were a bad guy,” said Gordon of his race with Johnson. “We raced him really hard, it was a matter of time before my two tires gave up.”

With the win Johnson extended his points lead over Mark Martin (to 90) who finished 17th following an early race contact with JPM.

Montoya, who had been third in points (58 behind) was hit from behind by Martin and into a car in front. He explained “we all kind of accelerated and checked up (braked suddenly). Every time the 24 restarted, everybody packed in the back." After repairs he lost laps, and finished 35th. He fell to sixth place and almost impossible 195 point deficit with five races to go.

Johnson summed it up after his 46th win, “it was a perfect weekend something Chad wanted to do.”